	May/June, 2005
Promoting Native Language and Culture in English-Only Programs By Suzanne Irujo, ELL Outlook Staff Writer Carlos and Enrique's desks are right next to each other on one side of a mainstream fourth-grade classroom. Most of the time they sit quietly, working in a reading workbook or on math worksheets, or just staring out the window. Occasionally, when the teacher isn't looking, they whisper furtively back and forth. Most of the whispering consists of Enrique explaining to Carlos how to do the work. Enrique has been in this country for two years and understands a lot of what is said in the classroom, although complex explanations still puzzle him. Carlos has just arrived, and understands little beyond "No talking." Their teacher is a friend of mine who teaches in a medium-sized industrial city in the northeast. Her state and school district both subscribe to an English-only philosophy of education for English language learners, so although she knows a little Spanish, she has never used it in the classroom. As the number of Spanish-speaking students in her class has increased but their academic achievement has not improved, she has begun to question this philosophy, and now believes that using the students' native language in instruction is academically and culturally beneficial. Yet she is not sure whether or how to use her students' native language and culture in her classroom. My friend's question is similar to one I have heard repeatedly over the years from students, former students, colleagues, and acquaintances, people who have read the research on the effectiveness of native language instruction (Ramirez, 1992; Collier & Thomas, 1997), but who work in states with English-only laws, in school systems where there are small numbers of English language learners from many different language backgrounds, or in districts where there are no teachers or materials available for the languages the students speak: "What do you do if you believe in the benefits of native language instruction but work in a school system where bilingual education is impossible?" There is a hidden assumption implied in this question, which is that the reason students do better in bilingual education programs is the use of the native language per se. While this may be true, it is not necessarily so, and we will never be able to prove if it is or not. Education is not an exact science. In this era of "scientifically based research," we all want "proof" that what we are doing is effective. Program models are not like agricultural plots, however. We can't randomly assign students to one treatment or another, and we can't control all the other variables in order to show that it's the treatment that makes the difference. Even if we have strong evidence that students in bilingual programs achieve better than students in monolingual programs, these results may not be due just to the linguistic benefits of comprehensible instruction. It may be that the use of the native language affirms students' culture and identity, making them feel better about themselves, so they achieve better. If this is the case, perhaps we could get the same results from affirming students' culture and identity in other ways. Empowering Minority Students Almost 20 years ago, Jim Cummins argued in his article "Empowering Minority Students" (Cummins, 1986) that the major cause of school failure among minority students lies not in inadequate program models or inadequately trained teachers but in the unequal power relationships between teachers and students and between schools and communities. He outlined four elements of school organization that contribute to minority students' disempowerment: (1) cultural and linguistic incorporation that is subtractive rather than additive; (2) community participation that is exclusionary rather than collaborative; (3) pedagogy that is transmission-oriented rather than reciprocal interaction-oriented; and (4) assessment that is legitimization-oriented rather than advocacy-oriented. By changing each of these elements, teachers can do much to change the unequal power relationships that exist between schools and communities, thus empowering minority students so they will achieve better academically. This article will discuss ways to incorporate minority students' language and culture into the school, even when it is not possible to implement a bilingual-bicultural program. Using the Native Language to Affirm Students' Identity It may seem to be a contradiction to say that one can have an additive orientation to language and culture without having a bilingual program. As Cummins points out, however, "an additive orientation does not require the actual teaching of the minority language" (Cummins, 1986, p. 25). Even if the native language cannot be used in instruction, Cummins says that educators can "communicate to students and parents in a variety of ways the extent to which the minority language and culture are valued within the context of the school" (Cummins, 1986, p. 26). Perhaps the most important thing teachers can do to convey to students the importance of their native language is to learn and use some of the language. A simple "Buenos días" or "Akrun suasdey" instead of "Good morning" goes a long way toward demonstrating to students that their language is welcome in the school. Asking students how to say things in their language, and remembering their answers, makes language learning a two-way street, and makes teachers more aware of the daunting task their ELL students face in learning English. Classroom labels and bulletin boards in two or more languages will help everybody's vocabulary acquisition. Since learning enough of the students' language to be able to use it in teaching is a major commitment of time and energy, it is probably not possible for many teachers to do so. Whatever a teacher can do to bring that language into the classroom, however, is a step toward helping students value their native language. There are also ways to use the native language in instruction even when teachers don't speak it. If the students are literate in their language, they will benefit if teachers acquire any native language materials they can (through begging, borrowing, or stealing, if purchasing is not an option). Ideally, students would be able to read native language materials before learning about a topic in English, thus acquiring the background knowledge that will help make the English more understandable. But any use of native language materials at all conveys the same message that saying "Gracias" or "Ar kun" does: "Your language is important in this classroom." It is also important that teachers not be afraid to let students use their native language to facilitate comprehension. Teachers who don't understand what their students are saying are understandably reluctant to encourage native language use in the classroom. How can they be sure that students are on task? But most ELLs want to complete school assignments accurately and get frustrated when they can't understand what they are supposed to do. Careful monitoring of the products that result from native language peer assistance will easily show whether students have been on task when they use the native language to help each other. Finally, teachers can pressure schools to provide native language tutoring for their ELLs. If this isn't possible, teachers might be able to find volunteers to come into the school to work with ELLs in their native language. Members of the community might be willing to volunteer, as may older English-speaking students who are studying the ELLs' native language. Even if the volunteers are not qualified to do tutoring, the affirmation of the native language will be beneficial Affirming the Native Culture We have been talking about ways to use the native language in the classroom as if it were separate from culture, but of course it's not. Many of the ways of incorporating language into the classroom also apply to culture: We can learn about it, celebrate it, bring it into the classroom, and encourage students to share it. We must be careful, however, not to limit our celebration of other cultures to the level of folklore, festivals, and food. While an "International Festival," featuring food, music, and perhaps traditional costumes and dances, can be entertaining, it will do little to help students or teachers understand the underlying beliefs and value systems that differentiate cultures and determine how people behave. It is at this level that cross-cultural misunderstandings occur. Students will not be able to live easily in a different culture unless they understand the reasons why people behave differently in different cultures. In addition, teachers will not be able to adapt their teaching styles to students' differing learning styles unless they understand how this "deep culture" determines behavior. Teachers need to understand that different culturally determined learning styles can affect students' success or failure in schools. We have known for a long time that learning improves when Native American students' observational learning style is incorporated into their teachers' teaching styles (Phillips, 1972), when Hawaiian students' cultural style of discussing and interpreting text is incorporated into reading instruction (Au & Jordan, 1981), or when Hispanic students' "field-sensitive" learning styles are understood and utilized in classroom instruction (Ramírez & Castañeda, 1971). Many teachers, however, still believe that the best way to help students acculturate is to immerse them in the new culture with no recognition of or accommodation to their native culture. As with language, this subtractive attitude toward culture only leads students to believe that their culture, and therefore they themselves, are inferior. This contributes to disempowerment and academic failure. It is also important that we bring multiple cultures into the school and classroom. There is a danger in focusing only on U.S. culture and our ELL students' culture. When two cultures are looked at through the same lens and students don't understand why they are different, one or the other of them will seem very strange indeed. When those two cultures are the students' own and the one in which they are living, this strangeness can make the process of learning to live in the new culture even more difficult. Conclusion All of these ways of using the native language and culture can help counter the subtractive orientation of American society towards other languages and cultures. The message that ELLs most often receive from the dominant culture is: "Learn English, become Americanized. Forget your native language and culture. English is important; your native language isn't." Our students all know that they have to learn English, but they often feel that they have failed because they can't learn it as fast as schools expect them to, and because they don't want to give up their native cultural values as they adjust to American customs. Once students start feeling that they are failures, that perception is very difficult to reverse. Teachers and schools can help prevent ELLs from failing through incorporating their native languages and cultures into the school in whatever ways are possible. After reading Cummins' article on empowerment, my fourth-grade mainstream teacher friend has reached the same conclusion. She now uses the little Spanish she knows in many different ways and is working to expand her knowledge of the language. She is taking a multicultural education course that is helping her understand how culture affects all behavior and how she can adapt her teaching style to her students' learning styles. And Enrique and Carlos are successfully completing more of their work now that they don't have to whisper furtively in order to help each other. References Au, K. H., & Jordan, C. (1981). Teaching reading to Hawaiian children: Finding a culturally appropriate solution. In H. Trueba, G. P. Guthrie, & K. H. Au (Eds.), Cultural and the bilingual classroom: Studies in classroom ethnography (pp. 139-152). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Collier, R., & Thomas, W. P. (1997). School effectiveness for language minority students. Resource Collection Series #9. Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education. Cummins, J. (1986). Empowering minority students: A framework for intervention. Harvard Educational Review, 56, 18-36. Phillips, S. U. (1972). Participant structure and communicative competence: Warm Springs children in community and classroom. In C. B. Cazden, V. P. John, & D. Hymes (Eds.), Functions of language in the classroom (pp. 370-394). New York: Teachers College Press. Ramírez, J. D. (1992). Executive summary. Bilingual Research Journal 16 (1 & 2), 1-62. If you have any comments about this article or questions for for the author, please send them to: alex@coursecrafters.com.
Copyright © 2005 Course Crafters, Inc.® All rights reserved.

May/June, 2005

Promoting Native Language and Culture in English-Only Programs

By Suzanne Irujo, ELL Outlook Staff Writer

Carlos and Enrique's desks are right next to each other on one side of a mainstream fourth-grade classroom. Most of the time they sit quietly, working in a reading workbook or on math worksheets, or just staring out the window. Occasionally, when the teacher isn't looking, they whisper furtively back and forth. Most of the whispering consists of Enrique explaining to Carlos how to do the work. Enrique has been in this country for two years and understands a lot of what is said in the classroom, although complex explanations still puzzle him. Carlos has just arrived, and understands little beyond "No talking."

Their teacher is a friend of mine who teaches in a medium-sized industrial city in the northeast. Her state and school district both subscribe to an English-only philosophy of education for English language learners, so although she knows a little Spanish, she has never used it in the classroom. As the number of Spanish-speaking students in her class has increased but their academic achievement has not improved, she has begun to question this philosophy, and now believes that using the students' native language in instruction is academically and culturally beneficial. Yet she is not sure whether or how to use her students' native language and culture in her classroom.

My friend's question is similar to one I have heard repeatedly over the years from students, former students, colleagues, and acquaintances, people who have read the research on the effectiveness of native language instruction (Ramirez, 1992; Collier & Thomas, 1997), but who work in states with English-only laws, in school systems where there are small numbers of English language learners from many different language backgrounds, or in districts where there are no teachers or materials available for the languages the students speak: "What do you do if you believe in the benefits of native language instruction but work in a school system where bilingual education is impossible?"

There is a hidden assumption implied in this question, which is that the reason students do better in bilingual education programs is the use of the native language per se. While this may be true, it is not necessarily so, and we will never be able to prove if it is or not. Education is not an exact science. In this era of "scientifically based research," we all want "proof" that what we are doing is effective. Program models are not like agricultural plots, however. We can't randomly assign students to one treatment or another, and we can't control all the other variables in order to show that it's the treatment that makes the difference. Even if we have strong evidence that students in bilingual programs achieve better than students in monolingual programs, these results may not be due just to the linguistic benefits of comprehensible instruction. It may be that the use of the native language affirms students' culture and identity, making them feel better about themselves, so they achieve better. If this is the case, perhaps we could get the same results from affirming students' culture and identity in other ways.

Empowering Minority Students

Almost 20 years ago, Jim Cummins argued in his article "Empowering Minority Students" (Cummins, 1986) that the major cause of school failure among minority students lies not in inadequate program models or inadequately trained teachers but in the unequal power relationships between teachers and students and between schools and communities. He outlined four elements of school organization that contribute to minority students' disempowerment: (1) cultural and linguistic incorporation that is subtractive rather than additive; (2) community participation that is exclusionary rather than collaborative; (3) pedagogy that is transmission-oriented rather than reciprocal interaction-oriented; and (4) assessment that is legitimization-oriented rather than advocacy-oriented. By changing each of these elements, teachers can do much to change the unequal power relationships that exist between schools and communities, thus empowering minority students so they will achieve better academically. This article will discuss ways to incorporate minority students' language and culture into the school, even when it is not possible to implement a bilingual-bicultural program.

Using the Native Language to Affirm Students' Identity

It may seem to be a contradiction to say that one can have an additive orientation to language and culture without having a bilingual program. As Cummins points out, however, "an additive orientation does not require the actual teaching of the minority language" (Cummins, 1986, p. 25). Even if the native language cannot be used in instruction, Cummins says that educators can "communicate to students and parents in a variety of ways the extent to which the minority language and culture are valued within the context of the school" (Cummins, 1986, p. 26).

Perhaps the most important thing teachers can do to convey to students the importance of their native language is to learn and use some of the language. A simple "Buenos días" or "Akrun suasdey" instead of "Good morning" goes a long way toward demonstrating to students that their language is welcome in the school. Asking students how to say things in their language, and remembering their answers, makes language learning a two-way street, and makes teachers more aware of the daunting task their ELL students face in learning English. Classroom labels and bulletin boards in two or more languages will help everybody's vocabulary acquisition. Since learning enough of the students' language to be able to use it in teaching is a major commitment of time and energy, it is probably not possible for many teachers to do so. Whatever a teacher can do to bring that language into the classroom, however, is a step toward helping students value their native language.

There are also ways to use the native language in instruction even when teachers don't speak it. If the students are literate in their language, they will benefit if teachers acquire any native language materials they can (through begging, borrowing, or stealing, if purchasing is not an option). Ideally, students would be able to read native language materials before learning about a topic in English, thus acquiring the background knowledge that will help make the English more understandable. But any use of native language materials at all conveys the same message that saying "Gracias" or "Ar kun" does: "Your language is important in this classroom."

It is also important that teachers not be afraid to let students use their native language to facilitate comprehension. Teachers who don't understand what their students are saying are understandably reluctant to encourage native language use in the classroom. How can they be sure that students are on task? But most ELLs want to complete school assignments accurately and get frustrated when they can't understand what they are supposed to do. Careful monitoring of the products that result from native language peer assistance will easily show whether students have been on task when they use the native language to help each other.

Finally, teachers can pressure schools to provide native language tutoring for their ELLs. If this isn't possible, teachers might be able to find volunteers to come into the school to work with ELLs in their native language. Members of the community might be willing to volunteer, as may older English-speaking students who are studying the ELLs' native language. Even if the volunteers are not qualified to do tutoring, the affirmation of the native language will be beneficial

Affirming the Native Culture

We have been talking about ways to use the native language in the classroom as if it were separate from culture, but of course it's not. Many of the ways of incorporating language into the classroom also apply to culture: We can learn about it, celebrate it, bring it into the classroom, and encourage students to share it.

We must be careful, however, not to limit our celebration of other cultures to the level of folklore, festivals, and food. While an "International Festival," featuring food, music, and perhaps traditional costumes and dances, can be entertaining, it will do little to help students or teachers understand the underlying beliefs and value systems that differentiate cultures and determine how people behave. It is at this level that cross-cultural misunderstandings occur. Students will not be able to live easily in a different culture unless they understand the reasons why people behave differently in different cultures.

In addition, teachers will not be able to adapt their teaching styles to students' differing learning styles unless they understand how this "deep culture" determines behavior. Teachers need to understand that different culturally determined learning styles can affect students' success or failure in schools. We have known for a long time that learning improves when Native American students' observational learning style is incorporated into their teachers' teaching styles (Phillips, 1972), when Hawaiian students' cultural style of discussing and interpreting text is incorporated into reading instruction (Au & Jordan, 1981), or when Hispanic students' "field-sensitive" learning styles are understood and utilized in classroom instruction (Ramírez & Castañeda, 1971). Many teachers, however, still believe that the best way to help students acculturate is to immerse them in the new culture with no recognition of or accommodation to their native culture. As with language, this subtractive attitude toward culture only leads students to believe that their culture, and therefore they themselves, are inferior. This contributes to disempowerment and academic failure.

It is also important that we bring multiple cultures into the school and classroom. There is a danger in focusing only on U.S. culture and our ELL students' culture. When two cultures are looked at through the same lens and students don't understand why they are different, one or the other of them will seem very strange indeed. When those two cultures are the students' own and the one in which they are living, this strangeness can make the process of learning to live in the new culture even more difficult.

Conclusion

All of these ways of using the native language and culture can help counter the subtractive orientation of American society towards other languages and cultures. The message that ELLs most often receive from the dominant culture is: "Learn English, become Americanized. Forget your native language and culture. English is important; your native language isn't." Our students all know that they have to learn English, but they often feel that they have failed because they can't learn it as fast as schools expect them to, and because they don't want to give up their native cultural values as they adjust to American customs. Once students start feeling that they are failures, that perception is very difficult to reverse. Teachers and schools can help prevent ELLs from failing through incorporating their native languages and cultures into the school in whatever ways are possible.

After reading Cummins' article on empowerment, my fourth-grade mainstream teacher friend has reached the same conclusion. She now uses the little Spanish she knows in many different ways and is working to expand her knowledge of the language. She is taking a multicultural education course that is helping her understand how culture affects all behavior and how she can adapt her teaching style to her students' learning styles. And Enrique and Carlos are successfully completing more of their work now that they don't have to whisper furtively in order to help each other.

References


Au, K. H., & Jordan, C. (1981). Teaching reading to Hawaiian children: Finding a culturally appropriate solution. 
          In H. Trueba, G. P. Guthrie, & K. H. Au (Eds.), Cultural and the bilingual classroom: Studies in classroom  
          ethnography (pp. 139-152). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Collier, R., & Thomas, W. P. (1997). School effectiveness for language minority students. Resource Collection 
          Series #9. Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education.

Cummins, J. (1986). Empowering minority students: A framework for intervention. Harvard Educational Review, 
          56, 18-36.
		  
Phillips, S. U. (1972). Participant structure and communicative competence: Warm Springs children in community
          and classroom. In C. B. Cazden, V. P. John, & D. Hymes (Eds.), Functions of language in the classroom 
          (pp. 370-394). New York: Teachers College Press.
		  
Ramírez, J. D. (1992). Executive summary. Bilingual Research Journal 16 (1 & 2), 1-62.

If you have any comments about this article or questions for for the author, please send them to: alex@coursecrafters.com.